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Zero Posters!!!!!

Well, I’ve hurt Shahrukh by not doing a full real Shahrukh Month celebration, and now he is posting posters right after I get off twitter and go to work. I’m sorry Shahrukh!!!! I still love you! Anyway, I will try to make up for it by giving this poster it’s very own post.

First poster:

Second Poster:

Well, I am feeling a little better. Especially with the first poster. Anushka looks nicely de-glammed and seems to have some kind of physical abnormality which would make an interesting pairing with Shahrukh’s dwarfism. Most importantly, Shahrukh’s costume is age appropriate and so is his face. If he turns out to be a nice college professor who happens to be a dwarf, I will be very happy.

Second poster, hmm. A little worrisome. Great image, but I don’t like the youthful worshipful look on Shahrukh’s face, makes me worried he is playing young again. Plus sneakers. But I do like that the first one clearly has Anushka and Shahrukh as good friends and equals, while the second is selling the fantasy woman. It’s so obvious that it seems like the filmmakers must see this too, right? The difference between the two relationships and which one should be the end-game?

Random thought that occurred to me, is it possible the Kat section actually takes place before the Anushka one? Like, back in India Shahrukh was a young fanboy, and then something happened which brought him to America and sent him to university and stuff? This is really reaching, but would it be possible that Anushka is his and Kat’s daughter? No, that is too unlikely. Far more likely is that the film takes place partly in America with Shahrukh and Anushka bonding, and partly in India and other places with him chasing the dream of Kat.

76 thoughts on “Zero Posters!!!!!”

I think there are definitely two parts to the movie. One half has the SRK/Kat story and the other half has the Anushka/SRK story. I too think that the first half is SRK chasing Katrina in India. For whatever reason, he later lands up in the US where he meets Anu.

Now I am getting worried it will be more like Forrest Gump, a whole series of amazing adventures as he helps people in different ways, bookended by the two actresses. I don’t want Shahrukh to be “magical dwarf man”.

I like the vibe of both posters. I agree I’m so glad his face is not “de-aged” in the Anushka poster. I think that hi younger looking face/expression in the Kat poster could also be explained if this is a fantasy sequence, or if it’s just overzealous photoshopping on the poster itself.

Based on the Eid teaser with Salman, they are also selling his character as sort of wide-eyed in wonder kind of thing. Which just naturally makes him look younger. I’m glad that the Anushka poster looks different.

I start to be excited! Especially after seeing Anushka poster. But can somebody translate what Anushka and SRK wrote in their tweets about posters? I hate when they write only in hindi. I know it’s hindi movie, but they will sell it in many other countries too, so I think it’s not fair.

I’m excited too! And also, HA! I said weeks ago they would release the trailer on his birthday and I was RIGHT! And now Friday for me will be obsessive refreshing of The Internet. as part of a massive global community of people obsessively refreshing The Internet looking for the trailer.

Okay, that looks like the end game should be Anushka (THANK GOODNESS). If he turns down Anushka because he is dreaming of Kat, goes to track her down, realizes she is not what he dreamed of and Anushka is better, I would be very happy.

Don’t know if that will be the plot, but wouldn’t it be a good movie if it were?

Maddy has an actual role. He was in the US with the team for a long time. This is a partial spoiler but I remember them shooting some kind of wedding scene before SRK arrived in the US so my guess it that Anu is married to Maddy.

I would love an earlier release but they are apparently doing a huge trailer launch event Friday at a huge movie theater, where the stars and Aanand will be present. I’ve even read that they’re recreating the streets of Meerut for it? In any event, we won’t see the trailer until that event happens.

Very full day for Shah Rukh: Trailer launch, press meet, fans meet-up. Whew!

Well, he’s had two years in a row of “real” birthdays, going out to the farmhouse with friends after an early and late wave to the crowds, I guess it’s time for another “working” birthday. I would hate it, when I become a super famous international celebrity, I am going to keep my birthday as a day OFF, just for me.

He is celebrating his birthday/diwali on Nov. 3. There is a big party at Mannat. He usually celebrates one day early but I guess the trailer release would keep him busy so they’re doing it a day later.

Is any one else really annoyed with the ‘campaign’ they are doing for the trailer? Like getting people like Taran and other Bollywood ‘insiders’ talking about how good the trailer is before it launches 🙄

For me, this kind of thing becomes irritating or okay in retrospect. There was all this “greatest movie I’ve ever seen! Totally unique!” stuff for Dangal, and then I saw Dangal and went “well, it’s good, but it’s not unique or the greatest movie ever” which retroactively made me irritated at all those people. So far, I’m just seeing people say “the Zero trailer was good” and so long as it actually is good, I’m fine. Just, don’t try to make it out as the greatest thing ever if it isn’t.

This a bad habit everyone seems to have. They show the promo first to the media and I assume the people who get to see it want to maintain good relations so that they are invited next time too. Nobody is going to criticize anything because they don’t want to risk being cut off for the next event. Promo reviews are always good for every movie for this reason. I think it’s a pointless exercise.

I think its pointless if we are actually paying attention to the content of the comments. But their mere existence is fine. In “olden days”, you would have professional reviewers and news outlets to help with this kind of thing, you could buy ad space if you wanted. Now it’s all done through social media, so you just need a way to get the name and poster of your movie out there to people. If I think of Akshay Kumar’s twitter account as the equivelant of a local newspaper, and him tweeting about the poster/trailer will reach the isolated subset of people who only read his twitter, then I’m fine.

But I agree, for those of us who follow multiple twitter accounts it is SUPER IRRITATING seeing the same thing over and over again. Just like it used to be SUPER IRRITATING having multiple newspaper subscriptions and seeing the same ad in all of them.

Although there are two people at least that I will trust in their reactions. Karan made a public New Year’s resolution (I think) last year that he was going to stop lying in this comments. which doesn’t mean he will say bad things, but if he doesn’t have something nice to say, he won’t say anything at all. And Aamir said that he is careful with his comments because his face shows how he feels so clearly after a screening, if he hates the movie he will make sure there aren’t any photos or coverage of him watching it. Based on Aamir taking a photo with Shahrukh, and Karan tweeting something nice, I am cautiously optimistic.

For what it’s worth, my guess as to storyline is that Anushka loves Shah Rukh but he’s such an obsessive fan of Katrina that he doesn’t give her the time of day, or at least doesn’t think he loves her back. His pursuit of Katrina takes him to Meerut, or he lives there and she’s filming there (the poster with the two of them is in Meerut) where he meets her. He learns that she’s an alcoholic, or has a drinking problem (long rumored to be a character trait of her character) and he somehow has a profound effect on her but realizes he can’t/doesn’t love her/she will never love him, and it finally dawns on him that the other “incomplete” person in his life, Anushka, is and always has been the one for him.
As far as the poster with SRK and Katrina, I don’t see the look on his face as worshipful. I think he’s scared. What that might mean, I have no idea!

That would be a nice plot. A little predictable, but nice. I hadn’t heard the alcohol rumor, that makes sense. That character first look for her looked so damaged and unhappy, I was thinking there was going to be something seriously wrong with her character but couldn’t think what it would be. Alcoholism is a nice and tidy option, easier to see and understand and know what she needs to do about it than something like depression.

I’m going to be another bah humbug voice on this one, sorry:( It looks more and more problematic with every new reveal. I really do want to like this one, for the star cameos in the film alone and my respect for all three main actors. SRK will ham, Anushka will do her thing, and I for some reason I suspect that this role could be a kind of breakthrough for Katrina (not sure why). But every hint about the plot seems like it may end up being so cringeworthy. After watching the treatment of the little person character in Dhadak (another giant strike against that film), I have very little confidence that this will be handled well. Plus, outside of Margarita With a Straw, Black, and even Priyanka’s character in Barfi (I can’t believe I’m praising something she’s done!), I just have no confidence in a portrayal of differently abled people like this that is aimed at a mass audience and a very forgiving SRK fanbase. I’m happy to be proven wrong though.

I hope it’s nothing like Margarita, Black or Barfi. I disliked every single one of those movies. Margarita was so boring I turned it off before finishing it. The hamming in Black was unbearable. And apart from Priyanka’s acting, nothing was good in Barfi either. (IMO)

I haven’t seen any of those three movies, but my hope would be (as it is for all disabled characters) that Anushka’s situation is treated as part of her character, but not the whole storyline. If it is a simple matter of making her someone who isn’t pretty or perfect, the opposite of the dream woman Katrina, I will be down for that. But I don’t want it to be a whole movie about her medical conditions. And I definitely don’t want her to be the sad dying girl, I want her to be the living girl who is distinctly not perfect and what that is like for her, and the people who love her.

I hope for the same regarding Anushka’s character. I think Anushka is a strong enough actress to pull this off even if the script is shakey.

I respect both of your opinions on this one, of course! I also found Margarita, With a Straw boring. However, it honestly portrayed the character in all her human complexities not just as “woman in wheelchair.” Black was fascinating on every level and I enjoyed it so much (though it’s not a film I’ve returned to for rewatches). Barfi is so OTT and the critiques of it being derivative of Amelie and Chaplin are valid, but it’s still got the charm and emotion that works for me.

Have you seen Satyam Shivan Sundaram? It’s a later lessor Raj Kapoor film, but the idea he wanted to get at was a woman with a beautiful voice and ugly body, sort of the yin and yang of that. Supposedly he came up with the idea because of Lata Mangashkar, which is such a terrible insult to poor Lataji! Anyway, rather than trying to do some kind of lame “she’s the PLAIN sister” idea like in most films, he went ahead and had his heroine be horrible scarred from a burn all over the side of her face. Which was so simple and clear and much better than trying to convince us a truly beautiful actress was “plain”.

That’s what I am hoping for here, that the love triangle is between the beauty and the plain woman, but rather than try to convince us Anushka is “plain”, they are using an actual physical deformity to convey the same effect.

I have seen Satyam Shivan Sundaram. But I saw it so long ago…maybe even one of the first pre-1995 titles I saw. It’s the one with Shashi Kapoor and Waheeda(?). Or is is it Zeenat (I still haven’t gotten them straight in my head for some reason).

Zeenat. Raj Kapoor opted for “Her face will be hideous, but I will highlight her body constantly” which undercut the message of “beautiful voice/hideous surface”. Instead it was “perfect body, perfect voice, scarring on face”. It’s just the most ridiculous movie.

I think you need to watch an animated special reminding you of the Reason for the Season. Shahrukh’s Birthday isn’t about questioning his choices or being critical of his films! It’s about basking in the love and warmth of all that he has given us, forgiving his sins as he forgives ours, being optimistic and always looking on the bright side and best possible version. You can save your intellectual critiques and thoughtful social commentary for where they belong, Aamir’s Birthday.

Whoops, I thought I might have gone over the line there, but I was just being honest:( My sincerest apologies. You can delete the post and I’ll reserve my full comments for after I’ve seen the film, which is only fair:) The world really is out of whack though for me. I am honestly a pretty big fan of SRK and not usually a fan of Aamir. I even counted my DVD’s recently which are sorted by stars. I think I have more SRK films than any other star, with close seconds from Shahid, Imran, Hrithik, and Ranveer. There’s a reason he’s so beloved. And as my penance, I will post one of my all time favorite SRK moments on screen.

No no, I was joking! Don’t worry, this isn’t a “why we all love Shahrukh” post with a big disclaimer at the top, this is just a regular post, you are allowed to be honest and critical. Although I do appreciate getting some bonus SRK love!!!!

I am very impressed by you having DVDs sorted by star! Although I don’t know why, based on your user name I should have known you were an obsessive organizer. I did by star/year for a while, but it just got too confusing and complicated. And then I did just Shahrukh by year, but that was too hard too, so now I am down to everything in alphabetical order and by language, and then Shahrukh by himself in alphabetical order. And I really need to get rid of some DVDs, I have so many that are “in case I can’t find it anywhere else and want to watch it some day” category, but thanks to us.hotstar that is much less important. What I really need to do is figure out ripping DVDs and storing them on a harddrive, but that seems so HARD.

Re: my DVD organizing…I’m so weird about it. Yes, I’m an actual librarian but, much like you, I have such a love of my Indian DVD collection that I just like to “play” with it for lack of a better word. So every few weeks, I’ll decide I want to reorganize it. And it’s only back and forth between two schemes, alphabetical by genre or alphabetical by lead star (which means inevitably that there are more men represented than women…so occasionally I will reorganize giving precedence to the women in the co-leading romantic films even though the men often are the primary lead).

Just counted and I have 14 SRK films and the next highest is 10 for Shahid Kapoor. Imran, Hrithik, Saif have the next highest I think. And this is only counting films were I have decided they are the primary star in them. Of course, all of them can pop up in other star sections as well. I even once had little tags at the beginning of every section. That’s the true librarian coming out in me!

The rest of my non-Indian DVD collection is either in drawers under my TV or in a smaller shelf and less spread out for display.

I’m also starting to stop myself from buying DVDs unless I love the film because it’s just silly with all the streaming content. I have Hotstar for a while now for KWK and I’ll always have Netflix and Amazon Prime.

You’re collection is so beautiful! Mine is getting out of control, all the shelves except the SRK one are over-stuffed and stacked and so on. Which is a problem, because it means I have started double-buying DVDs because I can’t easily check to see if I already own it. I need to sort them into “need to transfer to hard disc so I have it in case it leaves streaming” “on streaming and always will be, I can get rid of it” and “I love it so much that I want the DVD on my shelf as sort of a display object”. That’s already my system for books, except replace “streaming” with “library”. I got rid of my copies of stuff like Outlander or Patriot Games because it will always be at the library, I keep my Anne of Green Gables because I love them so much, and I hold on to all my Heyers just in case because they are so high in demand the library might run out of them.

Anyway, Thanksgiving Project! I sort all my DVDs, and then spend the next 6 months figuring out how to rip them to a hard drive and actually doing it.

Thanks! It is just pretty to look at, too, and the three Ikea magazines down to the right are full of my few Filmfares and random CineBlitzs. I’m still hoping to someday stumble upon a treasure trove of Vogue Indias and Filmfares. I think I need to go to garage sales in Edison, New Jersey! Another reason I need a car!

Double-buying is no good! I do the same because I weed out and then I end up rebuying ones I’ve already owned in the past…it’s a vicious cycle that needs to stop. I’ve never really looked into storing things on hard drives and stuff because it just seems like so much work and I don’t normally watch films on my laptop and I’m too lazy to find the right cord I need to do the mirroring with my TV. I can cast from web browsers but beyond that I don’t know.

I’m still resisting storing all of my music digitally though. I still have a large CD collection (though stored in binders) and I burn everything I purchase or download digitally onto CDs as back up. Not everything lives in the “cloud” and it’s such a pain to have to go to my old computer or external hard drive to pull up music for my devices. It’s almost easier to just find the CD and reupload it.

I’m just now starting to use my public library more instead of buying books new and used. Being an avid romance reader, it can get too expensive especially when trying new authors. My keeper book shelves are just as nuts in terms of organization as my Indian DVD collection, but mostly by genre and then I have a separate TBR (to be read) shelving unit…5 shelves full! And separate ones for DIK romances and then one for other genre fiction keepers. There’s a very strict system to it all! I’m fascinated by how people display and organize their DVDs and books!

With romances, I know there are used paperback stores that have trade in policies, which is really the best way to do it I think. So you buy a book for $3, trade it in and get $2 back and then pick up another one. They are so hard to find at libraries (because they are so popular and it seems like they literally get read to bits), but I can’t justify actually purchasing something that I will read in a couple of hours and then never again. Anyway, I am woefully behind on my romance reading, I don’t think I’ve read a new one in a couple years. The hidden cost of blogging! Cuts into my reading time!

I have all my CDs in a big box in the closet as back-up, but otherwise I am all about owning digitally. Partly because I just don’t care that much about music, if I lost something I wouldn’t even notice or care that much. Plus 90% of what I listen to is popular recent Indian, and there are so many streaming options for those that I don’t really worry about it. And the remaining 10% is Christmas Classics, and those will always be available.

In my old apartment, after discovering I somehow owned 4 copies of Brigette Jones all on different bookshelves, I set aside an afternoon and sorted everything strictly alphabetical, plus a separate shelf just for movie books (found at least half a dozen books that I somehow owned duplicates of). And then I moved and put everything in boxes shelf by shelf and then unboxed. So now they are in that almost-but-not-quite alphabetical state you get in that situation. Little chunks of a box worth of books in alphabetical order and then a gap and then another chunk. Plus there’s the pure size sorting, the bigger heavier books on the lower shelves and the little paperbacks on top. Anyway, very excited for Thanksgiving, I am going to sort and get rid of a ton of books and then maybe recreate the alphabetization. Plus get rid of two bookshelves so I can move the desk there so I can move the armchair where the desk is.

The mass market editions of Anne of Green Gables but only the first six that I read in the early 90s are on my keeper shelf! Gotta love Anne! I want to read the new Marilla of Green Gables retelling.

I couldn’t get into the Outlander books, but I’ve been waiting for the series to end so that I can binge watch the whole thing at once, because I can sense I’ll love it despite not loving the books.

Patriot Games is an interesting pop culture thing for you to like! So just the books or the movie/show, too? It’s the Jack Ryan series, right?

Georgette Heyer has always been a bit of a blindspot for me. I have read many of her books and used to have a few on my DIK shelves until I weeded them out before a move. Devil’s Cub really is a classic and I should rebuy a copy.

My grandfather introduced my mother to Georgette Heyer back in the 1960s, so I grew up with her and it was a very proud moment when I was finally declared “ready” to read my first Heyer. Devil’s Cub and Masqueraders are my favorites, but over the years I’ve read almost all of them. She’s fascinating just as the origin of the romance novel. You can see her fighting her way towards perfection in her early books, and then she hits this period where she has figured out every single trope we are now familiar with. If you ever want to read a bad book, These Old Shades is the prequel to Devil’s Cub and everything is not quite right. The hero is too old and too evil, the heroine is too young and too innocent. And then Devil’s Cub everything is hovering right on the edge but is otherwise perfect.

We probably have the same Anne of Green Gables! The little paperback mass produced versions from the early 90s. They are falling apart a little bit, and now that the copyright has expired I just read them on my kindle anyway, but I can never get rid of my first copies. The funny thing is, my Mom still has her first copies too, and back in the 1960s the “standard” series was different from the 90s one! I have Green Gables, Avonlea, Island, Windy Poplars, House of Dreams, Ingleside, and then Rilla. My Mom’s version ended at Ingleside and then went to the two Chronicles of Avonlea, no Rilla.

Oh, I have a little streak of “manly” taste in my pop culture! Jack Ryan books, also Dick Francis. Has to be well written and entertaining, but I can enjoy the masculine fantasies from time to time. And Patriot Games is just super well-written, very fast-paced and exciting and so on. The later books in the series, not so much, got a bit too in love with his hero, but Patriot Games is perfect, I love it. And it’s the role Harrison Ford was born to play.

Outlander books are just massive things, super super long. And the series still isn’t over there’s supposed to be two more books coming (at least). I wouldn’t recommend the series just for that reason, you have to really really love it to be able to enjoy it. I slogged through all the books in one massive binge-fest, and then I was done. I may not be able to read the final two books just for that reason. And that’s why I can get rid of the copies I have, they are one time reads, not “pull it off the shelf in the middle of the night and re-read” reads.

I will also say I’m home sick from work and a bit grumpy so that could be why I’m too snarky today:( I’m now debating watching Gold or Satyameva Jayate today. I think I should watch a happy rom-com (maybe even JHMS, which I think is the lightest of all of his romances in a good way), but I’m still determined to watch every 2018 film I can. I hate that there’s always a few titles that I won’t be able to see until after everyone, including myself, are making best of lists in January.

I think Gold is the safer (and less bloodier) bet for the day. I’m always in the mood for Kunal Kapoor. He’s like Arjun Rampal…sometimes I just need to see him on screen and I don’t care what he’s doing or how bad his acting is! Though both are underrated. I don’t have the same level of love that you have for Amit Sadh (yet). From what I’ve heard, this one will help cultivate it:)

I just counted and I’ve seen 15 Indian films from this year so far. Raid, Padmavaat, Raazi, and Pari are my top four for sure. Ajay is so sneaky with his quality…he’ll do a string of silly, stupid, or problematic films, but interspersed will be a Drishyam (I didn’t love it but it’s definitely a quality film) and a Raid.

I saw an old interview with Ajay where someone was giving him a hard time for his uneven quality, and his response was “a script like Zakhm doesn’t come to me everyday”. Which is kind of an explanation I guess, he does the really good films when he is offered the really good films, but they don’t come up every day. Of course, if he was out there hunting for them I am sure he would find more high quality options, but I will let it go and accept that if Rohit Shetty is knocking down his door shocking Golmaal’s at him and a brilliant script like Raid only arrives once in a blue moon, that might excuse his up and down film quality.

Priyanka was amazing in Barfi. And, I liked the other actors’ performances too. I know many people didn’t like it, but I took it more as a fable than a story about real people, so that the “whimsy” which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t, and the seriously dark dark plot, fit together a bit better. Fables and fairytales are often like that.

When Madhavan twittered about his contribution in Zero and rumours about a wedding scene came up, I at once thought that the first teaser we saw is about ShahRukh disrupting the party. That Anushka had left India to work as a scientist at the Rocket Center where Maddy works, too.
After the teaser with Salman (and because of all the cameos of women he has worked with) I thaught that ShahRukh would have been introduced to work in entertainment through his adoration for Katrina which may have estranged him from Anushka.

As for publishing hyperbolic praise, I simply find it off-turning…and I despise filmfare for the article they published.

I like your idea of Shahrukh disrupting Anushka’s party. And that whole idea, of him realizing he really loves her and going to find her at the end of his journey.

I hate hyperbolic praise, it feels like they are insulting our intelligence. I’m fine with “I saw the Zero trailer, it’s a good trailer”, but anything along the lines of “I saw the Zero trailer, Mindblowing! Best Performance ever! Will break all records!” just feels fake. Unless it’s from Anil Kapoor, because I think that is sincerely how he sees the world.

In addition, one gets annoyed and that may reflect on people feeling about the upcoming film.

Georgette Heyer!!! I would not have imagined that someone else would have a collection of her books. It’s with her romantic stories I learned English to get my High School diploma. I was so bad in English and French that my teacher (whom I disliked vehemently) assured me that I would not be able to pass. So I had to find something I would enjoy while learning the language and I chose Heyer for English and the Adventures of Scarlet Pimpernel (Le Mouron Rouge) in French. I still have all the paperbooks (some Heyers also in German to help me understand at the beginning)…ah yes, and I got my diploma. Ha!

Georgette Heyer seems to be one of those universal authors that reads well in any language and notably romance genre novels are often the way that people learn to read in other languages!

Claudia, are a you a librarian or a Libra? Or both:)? I love that you still have your VHS, too. I am old enough to have had a few of my own back in the day, including many recorded VHS tapes of Olympic figure skating competitions that I eventually migrated to DVDs. But now that’s all on YouTube!!!

Oh, yuck! A lack of chemistry will be easy to demonstrate with those two. I bet everyone involved in that decision, especially SRK, knew how badly that kis in JHKJ and they know they have to work to make it disappear from our collective memories.

I can’t reply at the right place in the thread, but I wanted to add my appreciation of Raid. I watched it on a plane on the way to Zimbabwe last month. On the way back I thought–oddly, I feel like watching another Ajay movie, but all they had was Golmaal Again and Raid. I watched about the first half hour of GA and then just re-watched Raid. Then when I got home I made my husband watch Raid with me, because that storyline is right up his alley. Eat the rich! (or at least the ones who don’t pay their fare share in taxes)

Ditto Jung in Kim’s Convenience! My sister and I had a long debate about how an entry-level office employee could afford skin tight tailored shirts, and we finally decided he must sew them himself, late at night, shirtless (because, he’s making them).

Haha! That’s perfect. I just finished reading a romance novel (Christina Lauren’s Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating) and all I could picture was that actor as the hero. They are going to be casting soon for the hero in the movie adaptation of Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient, another really great recent romance, and he would be great for that role, too. But I bet Henry Golding will get it because of Crazy Rich Asians and it helps that Golding is s bi-racial like the character in that one. So maybe Simu Liu can be in the other one (at leas in my head!).

Oh Frog Prince is a fascinating idea! Because the other part of that story is that the princess saves him, but doesn’t really love him, not until he is a handsome man. So maybe Katrina is the one who makes him a “man” (as in, his experiences with her make him confident in himself) but then he realizes she never really loved him when he was a “frog” and he should go back to Anushka because she always loved him.